At Malfoy Manor
by Kokoro893
Summary: IWSC: Due to her Auror-training, Tonks finally has a chance to get to know her relatives while searching their home for dark artifacts.


**International Wizarding School Championship**

Big thanks to **NinjaDevil2000** for being my beta

**Round One**

Mahoutokoro, Year 7

Special Rule: Writhe about a character you´ve never written before: Nymphadora Tonks

Theme: Malfoy Manor

Main Prompt: (song) Dollhouse by Melanie Martinez

Additional Prompt: (creature) Knarl

Word Count: 2,396

* * *

**At Malfoy Manor**

"Please Mr. Shacklebolt. I want to come too," the young witch begged her supervising officer. She stood on the other side of the big wooden table they shared in their office.

"It´s still too early, you´re only at the beginning of your Auror-training. Tonks, I don´t want to overwhelm you," the older wizard said.

"Please, I´m ready. I promise I won´t embarrass you - ouch!" The quirky young witch shrieked, having just banged her foot into the table.

"Well, you have to learn it eventually, I suppose. Next Monday, we are going to search Mr. Bagman´s house for evidence to back up the rumors of his illegal gambling activities, you can join us for that."

This was disappointing to Tonks. Not only was no dark magic involved and even when they uncovered something since he was probably not running a gambling-den himself, nothing more than a moderate fine awaited Mr. Bagman. But most importantly she also wouldn´t get a chance to finally get to know her relatives. Her mother never talked about her family. It took her quite a bit of digging but eventually, the young witch discovered that her aunt was the wife of Lucius Malfoy, the notorious death eater. Unfortunately, that was all she knew. Her hair, just minutes ago fiery-red spiking up in all directions, now looked dull and hung down saggy.

Usually, she would have a decent amount of control over her abilities but she felt safe with Kingsley, an old friend of her father`s and an excellent mentor to the young Metamorphmagus. She, therefore, saw no need to hide her emotions from him.

The Auror in charge exhaled loudly, "Fine, but you have to promise me that you want to join the search of Malfoy Manor because of your extended family and not because you want more action."

Tonks looked up at him. She couldn´t believe what she was hearing. The young witch smiled broadly at her supervising officer.

"Thank you, Mr. Shacklebolt."

* * *

Standing in front of the wrought iron gates with Miller and Smith, two wizards who looked liked they could handle some rough times, and Shacklebolt, she watched as the massive gate that bore the Malfoy-crest proudly open automatically. The Aurors walked the path up to the main building of the estate. Tonks was hit by a cold breeze that announced that summer was soon to end.

They arrived at the grand entrance hall. This room alone was bigger than her family's house and was covered in dark marble. Kingsley showed a house-elf the search warrant. The creature disappeared right in front of them with a loud crack not having spoken a single word with the search-party.

The Auror in training strolled through the extravagant room. It was weird to see how her relatives lived when her parents had to be frugal. Staring at the detailing of the ceiling, Tonks didn´t see the porcelain vase in front of her. She accidentally kicked it aside and the ceramic piece broke into hundreds of shards. The chinking sound echoed through the hall.

"I was not aware that you were authorized to destroy my property," a male voice said from behind her.

The young witch felt her cheeks burn. This was exactly what she had wanted to avoid. She tightened the grip on the handle of her wand. Being an Auror was dangerous and she was prepared for all eventualities. Kingsley handed Mr. Malfoy the search-warrant. Watching her uncle read the document, she decided he was currently not about to throw jinxes at her. She cast a quick _Reparo_ and the vase assembled itself back together.

"Is your wife present as well?" the dark-skinned Auror asked the Malfoy-patriarch.

"She is resting, my wife is suffering from migraines."

Her shoulders sank almost to the ground. What was her point of being here if her aunt didn´t even show up? Could they just wake her to say hi?

"I´m sorry to hear that," Shacklebolt said. Malfoy huffed.

Miller and Smith were told to start their search with the west wing and Tonks and Kingsley took the other side of the building.

"Do you wish me to serve you tea as well? And do try not to destroy every single piece of art," the alleged death eater called after them.

The young Auror-to-be wasn´t the best at reading people but even she could tell that her uncle wasn´t pleased to have them at his place. She also didn´t know whether she should be relieved or mad that he didn´t acknowledge her.

Her hand traced the curve of the wooden banister rail. At its end a wood-carved figurine of a Norwegian Ridgeback throned. The Matamorphmagus didn´t see it until it turned around and tried to bit her finger off. She jumped back. What the hell was that? Tonks tried to catch her breath.

"You have to watch out! For Merlin´s sake, you´re in the home of You-Know-Who´s righthand man. Death eaters won´t give you any warnings and we haven´t even encountered anything dangerous yet."

She nodded still shocked by what just happened. She watched the dark-skinned wizard swiftly throw a series of Dark Magic revealing-charms. Almost the entire room was covered by a light-blue glow. Seeing this made her understand why it was so damn hard to prove anything. Sure, they had magic to help them with their work, but so did the criminals and the ancestral building of a family of dark wizards and witches naturally oozed dark magic.

Tonks had thought until now that she knew what to do. Simply cast the revealing-charm and check it out. Now she was definitely overwhelmed by the sheer amount of traces they found.

"You can learn spells and charms from a book but knowing which leads to follow is what I´m teaching you. This is an ancient building; it has seen a lot in its time. We´re not going to find anything in here, come on," the experienced Auror said.

"How do you know?"

"This isn´t the first time I have searched this room," he said, withdrawing a notebook from his robes. He opened it and showed a graphic of the trace-pattern to his protege.

"I´ve looked thoroughly at it the last time and nothing has changed since," he chuckled.

After hours of dreadful and fruitless searching, they caught up with the other team. Miller and Smith proudly shoved Kingsley a small glass bottle filled with a clear liquid.

"We found it behind a wooden panel in the sitting room next to the lady´s suite," one of the dumb-looking Aurors said and his partner nodded. Kingsley removed a small vial from his robes and poured a drop of an equally clear liquid into it. The potion turned first into a light shade of purple before turning blackcurrant.

Mr. and Mrs. Malfoy entered the drawing-room just in time to see the potion reveal it´s characteristic color and to answer a few questions. The dark-skinned wizard turned around facing the Malfoys and showed them the bottle.

"This is not mine, you placed it somewhere because your incompetent Aurors could not find anything. You will not get away with it," the intimidating wizard who was completely dressed in black, barked. Tonks wasn´t really interested in his excuses.

His veins were popping out. Instinctively, she reached for her wand her eyes not leaving her uncle. His hands clenched the handle of his snake-cane and he gritted his teeth. Every bit of his posture screamed aggression. But she was more interested in his wife.

This was the first time she had gotten close to her mother´s baby sister. Her hair and make-up were meticulous. Tonks' eyes were fixed on the lady, but Mrs. Malfoy didn´t spare her a single glance. The blonde witch held her head high and didn´t seem to pay any attention to any of the people present. She looked through them as if they were made out of air. Her pale hands with the perfectly manicured but unpractically long nails reached out for the bottle.

"This belongs to me. I have a prescription for it since I suffer from cluster headaches," the aristocratic witch said.

Her husband turned to his wife and stared at the witch as if he was about to tear her apart. The young Auror had her wand ready to defend her aunt but the pureblood looked utterly unimpressed. Aren´t cluster headaches and migraines two different things? The young witch wasn´t an Auror for nothing.

"Please enlighten me, if you indeed have a prescription for the Draught of Sleeping Death madam, then why was it hidden?" the Auror in charge asked the lady of the manor calmly.

"I have a son and dangerous substances should not fall into his hands," Narcissa said, ignoring her still furious husband just like she was ignoring Tonks.

Tonks' curiosity got the better of her and she started to quietly walk out of the drawing-room. Strolling through the sheer endless corridors of Malfoy Manor, she followed a little noise. It got louder and she found her cousin sitting on the knee-high stone wall that framed the rosebeds.

He was crying. Tears ran down his round head which seemed too big for his slim body. She sat down next to the boy. Draco was holding his hand up high. There was a huge spike poking his index finger. It was now or never. She took a deep breath and looked at the boy.

"Hi, I´m your cousin Nymphadora but please call me Tonks," she introduced herself.

Draco looked at her as if he was staring her down but the Auror to be wasn´t easily frightened by a child. She healed the injury with a small wand movement and a whispered _Episkey_.

"Hey! You weren´t supposed to do that," the blonde boy protested.

"But you were hurt."

"Father always says that a wizard should be able to heal small injuries just by wanting it."

"Well, you´re not supposed to do magic outside of Hogwarts and I promise I won´t tell him," the young witch said and smiled at the boy.

"If you ever need something, I promise, I´ll be there for you. I have to go now," she said walking away.

Running through the corridor, the white marble statues caught her attention. Being a Metamorphmagus she couldn´t resist the opportunity to spy on her relatives. She transfigured her Auror-robes into a white toga and turned her self all white as well. Looking similarly enough she positioned herself next to the statues.

She didn´t have to wait long until Mr. Malfoy approached his son. Draco reluctantly showed his father his hand. The two blondes were too far away for her to listen in so she cast the spell she had learned during one of her theoretical training sessions and that did the trick.

"I have told you, you do not require my help, have I not?" the older Malfoy said. The boy nodded shyly.

"Dobby! Bring me some scrape wool," the dark wizard summoned his house-elf.

Draco looked confused.

"For bedding. It is getting cold soon. Now show me those little Knarls you kept bothering me with."

Draco smiled widely. He took his father´s arm and dragged him out in the garden where the Knarls did the honorable job of keeping weeds out of the flowerbeds. Many minutes later they reentered the corridor and Tonks froze again trying not to stand out from the other statues. They walked down the corridor. She held her breath.

"Did you see how little the babies are?" Draco asked his father enthusiastically.

They were already a step past her. Tonks was relieved she didn´t draw any attention but then the dark wizard suddenly stopped. He turned around took her hand and kissed it.

"Nymphadora, dearest, if you ever find yourself in need of assistance, do not hesitate to owl me. There is hardly anything I wouldn´t do for a pretty little thing like you."

The young Auror felt her cheeks grow hot and immediately turned back to her normal self with lilac hair. She needed to get away from him. She ran, throwing one of the statues to the ground only to find that the search-party and her aunt had relocated to the sitting room at the end of the corridor.

She stopped suddenly falling over her feet. With her arms, she managed to hold onto a small table to slow her fall. Laying on the wooden floor she heard her little cousin crying after her, scolding her for running inside the house. Her aunt looked at her and wrinkled her nose and shook her head.

"Here you are, I´ve been worried about you," Shacklebolt said helping his protege up.

Draco and his father arrived mere seconds after her. Narcissa raised an eyebrow and looked at her husband.

"Really Lucius, pretty little thing?"

"Stays in the family," he replied.

"I have only one sister and she currently resides at Azkaban for torturing the Longbottoms into insanity," she said sternly.

What? Did she just proudly announce that her lovely sister tortured people and Tonk´s kind and loving mother was disowned? What was wrong with them? Well, besides the whole Voldy business.

Her gaze wandered to a side table. A silver plate filled with mouthwatering cupcakes was standing on top of it. The buttercream on top had a pleasant blush pink color and it looked like pretty flowers. The young witch had no idea how their house-elf managed to produce them but they looked delicious. She felt drawn to the sweet and moved slowly towards them.

"I would not do that; they might be poisoned," her uncle whispered into her ear.

Shivers went through her spine. She immediately took a few steps back. Why did she have the weirdest and creepiest relatives of all? Draco sat down next to his mother and told her about the little knarls that lived in the rosegarden. Her aunt started to feed her son cupcakes. Did she do this just to mess with her?

"We´re confiscating the potion, you can have it back if you manage to find the prescription and show us it within the next ten workdays at the office at the Ministry of Magic. If not, a fine of ten galleons is due transferrable to vault 13, Fines for Minor Offences," the dark-skinned Auror told Mrs. Malfoy before they left the estate. It couldn´t be quick enough for Tonks.


End file.
